Request ID: FOI-0980-2223 Date published: 09 August 2022
You asked
Please provide details of the standard of service that is considered severe and minor delays.
Please also provide details for the number of Saturdays in 2022 where the service has been categorised severe delays and which involved a shuttle service to Epping only.
Please treat these requests as requests under the Freedom of Information Act
We answered
Our ref: FOI-0980-2223/GH
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 16 July 2022 asking for information about London Underground delays.
Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and our information access policy. I can confirm that we do hold the information you require.
Please find attached our guidance for declaring a service status. The delay status is a fluid concept. Both the line’s staff and our London Underground Control Centre monitor the line and if delays occur we can go to a delay message, which is communicated to the public. We can move in and out of these messages a number of times a day if the situation requires us to do so. Effectively, ‘minor delays’ is to stay with your route and ‘severe’ would be to avoid that route and make other plans.
Incidents which affected service on Saturdays were as follows:
12/03 – North Acton 09/04 – Bethnal Green 28/05 – White City
These were of approx. 60 mins duration.
16/07 – Leytonstone – Signal failure.
There may have been the odd occasion where a shuttle may have been introduced during the day but no records kept of such incidents.
Additionally, there was strike action by the RMT overnight on every Friday and Saturday from November 2021, finishing two weeks ago. For every week we operated night tube, we ran approx. 50% of our service overnight. Also due to this strike, we approached the night tube timings running a severely reduced service because of reduced Train Operator availability. So in effect, every Friday evening / Fri night & Sat evening / night, the line would most likely be at severe delay status. The train service to / from Epping stops at approx. 0100 (night tube is not booked to run to Epping, only Loughton), toward 0100 we may need to put in a shuttle to Epping for a trip to maintain the last trains.
For each of the 4 incidents listed above, only for the last one at Leytonstone, was an Epping shuttle introduced for most of the day. This was not due to strike action, but the nature and the length of the delay at Leytonstone.
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
If you are not satisfied with this response please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal.
Yours sincerely
Graham Hurt FOI Case Officer FOI Case Management Team General Counsel Transport for London
